Business screen magazine (1946)

A Good Prostitute Pays Off— And Many Other Things BYGENESTARBECKER You are on a film assignment overseas. Your crew is in quarantine. How can you get them out to keep on schedule? You've just learned your exposed film may have been inspected by .x-ray. Now what? The plane you are on is going to make a refueling stop in Red China. No one. not even the official translator, can speak the dialect of the villagers of a North Taiwan fishing village and you need a bare breasted woman nursing a child. How do you explain? And the ransome note you've just received says it will cost you S30,000 to get your crew and equipment back safely from Kthiopian bandits and all \ou have are credit cards. Impossible situations? Could never happen in a million years? Yet, hardly a week goes by that a camera crew working somewhere in the world isn't faced with problems equally perplexing and that could prove costly to the film maker who hasn't planned ahead for the unforeseen. After sixteen years of shooting in more than forty countries, here are a few tips that a film maker planning his first or fifteenth foreign production might find useful. Check Itineraries At most production ht)uses. when a contract comes in with foreign locations, everyone wails to see if he'll be the one to go on the assignment. Often in small companies the producer, the client, and the producer's star salesman, eyeing this as a paid vacation, decide lo shoot this one themselves, taking their wives along as assistants. More often than not their efforts are no belter than the aver.ige home movie of their trip, revealing their emphasis was on the vacation. Itineraries for this type of film are no problem and are adjusted to the number of sights and cities the vacationers plan to see. Filming is only incidental. Since a profit is not always essential, the planning of an itinerary is no problem. It is adjusted to the number of sights and cities the vacationers plan to see. The camera is taken out of its case as something of interest comes up. However. Where the aim is to make money, and quality is a prerequisite, successful producers, big and small, usually send competent professionals — seasoned in world travel — out specifically to shoot the film and get back. To keep crew costs down, itineraries are carefulU planned to get crews to and from locations expeditiously. However, most planners make no allowances for the effect of the biological clock on the working efficiency of the crew. Not being acquainted with culture or customs of a gi\en country, such planners often underestimate the hours needed, especially if photography involves working closely with foreign nationals or officials who accept protocol delays as a way of life. If the client specifies the areas he wants included, make sure he knows the exact locations so they can be pinpointed. More likely than not. you'll find that he has never been there and only has a secontl-hand knowledge of a location. The actual site could be anywhere from thirty miles to three hundred miles away from the city he indicates, possibly requiring you lo trek with a safari on foot. -Suburbi do^-s not ring most foreign cities, onl jungle, sand dunes, or jagged peak greet you past the city limits. Accural' advance knowledge of locations wi let you estimate fully. The lack c knowledge will give you an opporti; nity to write a contingency clause your contract to cover delays, incoi venience. etc. On a recent assignmcrfi for a government agency the producd: estimated travel time for his crej based on information given him ihJ a nuclear plant to be photographed w 150 miles from the nearest city. N; detail maps existed. An estimated foU hour trek by car turned out to be tc hours of fording rivers. tra\ersin ridges, and circumventing cattle art thousands of people repairing ir washed out road by hand. The time i^ and back added two days to schedule fouling up the remainder of itinerarl Forcing crews to travel all night f other locations to catch up. Alvva allow for travel time and for biologic clocks to adjust. Cameramen pressi to their limit of physical enduran^ have been known to become accidc prone or develop eye strain. Try c plaining why the Taj Mahal vvoi Slav in focus. it I Hair Cuts j Many countries will not permit car era crews with shoulder length hair unless the producer posts a bond atf guarantees to pay return flight lo tl U.S. for the person. | There are loo many college dro) (7cHc Slarhvikfr's cii/ii/x/iiv, Slarhcckr iliiii linntil iiiitl pniilut lion si'r\ici.i lo I iiirnt agencifx, iinil privale Ainerkaii and r Inc.. provUlf.t script preparation •iiu] 5 lihn producers and niiinhrr of goyirni international corporations. ejc\ Rii<%iNF(;<; <;rRFF